Articles

The Road to The Nationals Crowns Its First Champions

POSTED BY Martin Patino ON October 31, 2018

After weeks of qualifiers at several locations around the country, the first season of the Road to The Nationals came to an exciting conclusion last weekend at the 2018 Esports and Gaming Summit. The league’s Tekken 7 and Dota 2 tournaments each saw eight finalists battle it out in the grand finals where Andreij “PBE|Doujin” Albar and Sterling Global Dragons ultimately came out on top as the champion’s of the inaugural season of the Road to The Nationals.

Dota 2

Sterling Global Dragons was one of the first to qualify for the Road to The Nationals grand finals with their victory at the Manila qualifiers, but a roster change by the team before the big event led to them having to requalify through the last qualifier in Cavite. In spite of their setbacks though, including playing with a fairly new squad, the team still played excellently as they were able to bring down other notable teams in the grand finals including TaskUs Titans and Voyager, the latter of which they defeated twice.

The team would then have to face Station 751 in the finals, the 3rd-4th place team from the Cebu qualifier, who earned their spot after the 1st and 2nd place teams from their qualifier either forfeited their spot or were able to qualify in a succeeding leg. While their positions would make it seem like SGD would have an easy team in the finals, Station 751 were still able to take a game from the former. Ultimately though, the Manila-based team was able to achieve victory in the fourth game of the series, ending it 3-1.

Sterling Global Dragons go home with the title of inaugural champion of the Road to The Nationals Dota 2 tournament and PHP 600,000 winnings. Here are the full results of the Dota 2 grand finals as well as each team’s respective winnings:

Andreij “PBE|Doujin” Albar, who entered the grand finals via the Makati qualifier, didn’t win the championship easily as he was sent to the Losers Bracket during the Winner’s Semifinals by Julian “ELITE.Jules” Lozano, who qualified through the Marikina leg. This meant Albar had to climb his way back up through the Losers Bracket where he had to defeat Cagayan de Oro’s Raymund Jay “LimitBreak” Sarte and Cebu’s Francis Steven “UFTC Gogoy” Valencia Cabahug before once again facing Lozano in the Losers Bracket Finals.

During their second face off, Albar was able to turn the tables and take down Lozano, which secured his spot in the finals where the former had to face his teammate and rival, Alexandre “PBE|AK” Lavarez. The momentum Albar built up throughout his run in the Losers Bracket may have helped in his match against Lavarez as he was able to burn through the latter’s twice-to-beat advantage with a 3-1 victory in their first bracket and a close but ultimately successful 3-2 in the second bracket.

Albar not only takes home the title of the first Road to The Nationals Tekken 7 champion but also a grand prize of PHP 150,000. Here are the full results of the tournament, including each finalists respective winnings: